INTRODUCTORY I , K CT U R K S . 
725 
that it is of little importance for you to see practice now. This 
is the best opportunity that will occur to any of you, and you are 
bound by the strongest motives to avail yourselves of it. Your 
interest urges you to it, for your success in life will be propor- 
tioned to your practical attainments. Your peace of mind de- 
mands it, for the man duly prepared can alone cheerfully and 
boldly obey the summons to his patient, conscious that, what- 
ever the case may be, he is prepared to do all that his art is 
equal to. Your highest sense of duty not less loudly calls upon 
you ; for to you is committed a trust on which the life and enjoy- 
ment of many a sentient being depends.’' 
At the commencement of the Spring Session, the following 
excellent advice was offered to the medical students by the Edi- 
tor of “ The Lancet.” It will harmonize with the remarks of 
Dr. Taylor, and to those that will follow from Professor Bernard, 
of Toulouse. 
“ There are few topics of more general interest, in relation to 
the enlightenment of the medical profession, than is the subject 
of medical education. On this important question it would be 
difficult to decide what class of society should be most interested ; 
whether the junior member of our profession, just entering upon 
the studies which are to fit him to become an honourable and 
useful practitioner of medicine ; whether the senior of our profes- 
sion, who is contemplating the best means of training his sons 
to follow in his own footsteps ; or whether the public, who are to 
receive the benefits from well-directed labours, or are to support 
the pangs and sufferings entailed upon their constitutions by mis- 
applied talent or neglected studies. Indeed, it would be a hard 
matter to arrive at a conscientious judgment upon a subject of 
such paramount, such vital importance to every estate. Rea- 
soning upon the elevated position which medical education should 
occupy in the mind of every man in Great Britain, we should be 
induced to infer that no topic does engage the thought of every 
educated mind more warmly ; that, as self-security, ease, health, 
and even life, are involved in the question, none is more affec- 
tionately fostered by all men, of every shade of politics and rank, 
and that legislation upon this subject, and wholesome regulations 
and restrictions, must constitute the basis of the medical law of 
this enlightened country. 
“ But if we turn our minds from that which should be to that 
which is ; if we inquire whether that which we have written be 
the actual picture of the position of the profession in relation to 
education, we shall find, to our sorrow, that it is not. We shall 
